We sometimes view people as their end results, believing they’re born with innate creativity or genius. Take Mozart as an example. We think of him as a musical prodigy. However, someone encouraged him to take a seat at the piano for the first time. Some person urged him to embrace the talent entrusted to him. We think he possessed innate creativity, and maybe he did, but someone helped him release it.
Einstein serves as an example, too. We know him for his shattering theories about space and time. We miss the fact that someone introduced him to mathematics and physics. An individual saw past Einstein’s oddities and learning difficulties. Someone gave him a chance to tap into his creativity.
Some people might perceive those two men as examples of nature versus nurture. Maybe they possess a valid point; however, even the most creative person on the planet requires nourishment. He or she must be encouraged to push their creativity further. Without nurturing and honing of the particular craft, the person’s creativity withers and dies.
My own journey as a writer and artist comes to mind when contemplating the idea of nurture versus nature, the creative life truth that no one is born with creativity. I didn’t compose poems and essays in the cradle. I didn’t think I could draw until well after my college courses in drawing and design.
People encouraged me, though, to pursue my creative passions. My mom started early, reading to us every day and, every day, shoving my brothers and me out of doors. She wanted us to explore the world and play. In those outdoor moments, we ran around the yard and swung on the swings—normal, everyday childhood activities. We, however, also played story. Our sets were the yard; our players, us, of course, but sometimes a ranging farm cat or our dog. (I vividly recall a story with a postman that somehow involved our new puppy Little Anne.)
As I grew older, my mom let me adventure into other art forms: calligraphy, stenciling, watercolors, crochet. At one point, I even drew ideas for clothes. (I thought I’d go into fashion design until I realized how much I abhorred sewing.)
I explored then, and I explore now—I still have many, many things I want to learn from woodworking and welding to audio engineering and hand-lettering. If anything, that is the real benefit of nurturing creativity: Children develop the capacity to try new things and to be unafraid of failure. They become curious, and the curiosity drives them forward, not only as children but also throughout their lives.
Image: Harald Groven (Creative Commons)